


Whatchu Know 'Bout Me, Whatchu, Whatchu Know 'Bout Me?

by VeryNearly



Category: ASTRO (Band), K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe, Hate to Love, K-pop Cameos, M/M, Slow Burn, girl pop references, moonbin rides a motorcyle
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 09:23:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13268472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeryNearly/pseuds/VeryNearly
Summary: Dongmin is music show MC, and part of 5-membered boy group Astro, looking for their first music show win. Two years from debut, it looks like it's finally within their grasp.That is, until beautiful, charismatic, wildly popular solo singer Moonbin announces a surprise comeback the very same day. Ouch.





	Whatchu Know 'Bout Me, Whatchu, Whatchu Know 'Bout Me?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please excuse my relentless and terrible pop references in the titles, it’s just the theme. The story is good, please trust me.

“It just feels like he timed his comeback at the same time as ours just because he doesn’t want us to win,” Dongmin complained, fiddling with his MC microphone. His stage name, ‘ _ Cha Eunwoo,’  _ was emblazoned across the mic in glittery letters, as he picked off stray pieces of glitter in his frustration. His four group members were sitting around their waiting room in various levels of disinterest as he complained to them.

“What’s the big deal?” Minhyuk said from the back of the room. “So what? He timed his comeback the same time as ours?

Sanha turned around in his seat to face Minhyuk. “Dongmin-hyung just has a rivalry between him and Moonbin because they’re the same age.” Minhyuk laughed quietly, but when Dongmin turned to look at his he buried his face in his phone again.

“It’s not just rivalry Sanha!”

“Is this about first win then?” Jinwoo asked tentatively. 

“It’s more than rivalry _and_ the win Jinwoo-hyung!” Dongmin said, turning to shake his bedazzled microphone at him. “It’s about _decency!_ Big stars like him should be considerate to younger stars right? All that talk about looking out for his industry juniors or whatever, it’s all just talk! We _all_ know the only thing _he_ wants is to extend his stupid music show Win Streak, but he still _pretends_ like he cares.” 

“He’s always been nice to us Dongmin, I think you’re spending too much time online...”

“Being nice ‘in person’ means nothing when you still stab them in the back long distance! In fact, I think that’s even  _ more _ disrespectful. Jinwoo-hyung come on, aren't you upset? We’ve been striving for a win for almost two years now, don't you want it too?”

Jinwoo said nothing, but from the way he averted eye contact, he could tell it was true. Astro was a new group from a previously unknown company, they were trying to make a name for themselves in a fiercely competitive music industry. Weekly music show wins weren’t anything  _ real _ in a way, but they still secretly craved them.

It didn't help that Dongmin was the host of a show as well. Every week he watched group after group take home that trophy as he stood to the side and congratulated them. He’d smile and clap, but deep down it made him deeply anxious. After 2 years of activity, he started to wonder when it would be Astro’s turn. And when it finally started to look that way; big, bad, solo star Moonbin had to swoop in and snatch it out of their rookie hands.

“Well I think we can still win,” said someone, their voice cutting through Dongmin’s thoughts.

Sanha cleared his throat as four heads swiveled towards him. “I mean, we’ve been teasing our return for weeks right? Moonbin’s CB was just announced today. And his fanbase is big, but it hasn’t been growing as fast as ours since the last go around…” he drifted off at the end. He readjusted his stage mic under his ear and shrugged. “I’m just saying, it’s not impossible.”

Dongmin saw Myungjun and Jinwoo cast a quick glance between them when they thought Dongmin wasn’t looking. Not impossible.

####  ~~~

It  _ was  _ going to be a little harder than “not impossible” though, Dongmin thought as he waited to get wired up for broadcast. 

Waiting backstage was terrible because they had to move around in pseudo-darkness to get accustomed to the live broadcasting settings, but the stage lights still made the whole room hot. He couldn’t help but grimace as the stage hands began touching up his makeup.

“Excuse me, when is the next interviewee going to be here?” Xiyeon asked, a hint of impatience slipping into her voice. Xiyeon was his co-host, and a few years younger than Dongmin.

“He’s running late, sorry. He should be here any second now.” said one of the coordi-noonas, looking to her coworkers nervously. 

It wasn’t said aloud, but it was understood that Moonbin was the next interviewee. No other artist in contention this week would be so late. Dongmin sighed and dabbed the sweat off his forehead, taking a seat on a nearby sound mixer to wait. Xiyeon slid down next to him. They had been standing for the past few hours of pre-recording and their feet were tired. 

“You’ve met Moonbin-sunbae before right?”

“Yeah, I was MC for his fall and spring and comebacks. I talked to him once at a university music festival, but I don't ready remember about what. It wasn't very memorable to me.”

“I loved his spring comeback!” Xiyeon perked up. His spring comeback had been flight themed, and he wore a sky-blue airline uniform, and an adorable little box hat that matched. “You know, I haven’t met Moonbin-sunbae before. What was he like?” 

Dongmin shrugged, picking a piece of glitter off his microphone. “He’s fine I guess. He’s in good shape. He has a weird laugh, his speaking voice is kinda nasal, and he talks carelessly.”

Xiyeon nodded politely at Dongmin’s less-than-nice description of one of the hottest solo stars in Korea. She nodded. “Uh huh. Well what do you think about Moonbin’s Streak then? Think he can win a fifth time?”

Dongmin cast a side glance at Xiyeon to see if she was just teasing him. She knew, just like Dongmin, that his group was in direct contention with Moonbin this week. 

“...No,” Dongmin mumbled stubbornly. 

“If Pristin was going against Moonbin  _ I’d  _ say we could beat him too. But honestly I don’t know.”

Eunwoo deflated at her words. “Yeah... me too. I want Astro to win though.” 

“It’d be kinda cool to say you broke Moonbin’s Streak, but I don’t know if it’d be a good thing. It’d be some pretty crazy bragging rights, but fanwars can last forever.”

_It’s not my fault his fans are_ _insufferable_ , Dongmin thought to himself as he crossed his arms. As he began stewing in his thoughts, Xiyeon slapped his arm and pointed to the backstage entrance. “There he is!” she stage-whispered. “Look!”

Sure enough, being snuck through the (rarely used) side entrance; backlit by the harsh fluorescent hallway lights, was the prominent and solitary object of Dongmin’s ire: wildly popular, wildly successful, wildly late: solo star Moonbin. His manager was tugging him forward by the wrist, while two apologetic stylists trailed behind him, occasionally pulling a strand of Moonbin’s hair one way then the other, or wiping something from his chin. Despite being pulled in two different directions, Moonbin still smiled and waved to backstage staff, and even tried greeting one or two by name.

He hated admitting it, but Moonbin had something special about him. He had a powerful singing voice and a boyish sort of persona, but at the same time he was sexy in a way much like female idols, all gyrating hips and blowing kisses. Somehow it worked for Moonbin. In fact, it worked really well. He had a crazy long pair of legs and a nice face, and sharp cat-like eyes that were dressed in heavy makeup today.

While his manager stopped to talk to show staff, Moonbin began wandering over towards Dongmin and Xiyeon. He felt his heart thump as Moonbin moved towards him. He wasn’t quite sure why. While Xiyeon excitedly waved to Moonbin, Dongmin pretended he didn’t see him, which became harder and harder to do as he got closer. When he was about 5 feet away from them, Dongmin had to give up and just face him.

From the last few times he interacted with Moonbin, he knew they were around the same height. But when Moonbin walked up to them today, he was wearing a pair of black boots with insoles that gave him a few inches that Dongmin wasn’t ready to compete with. He smiled down at him and stuck a hand out to shake. Moonbin wore beautiful, razor thin rings around his fingers, some fingers with multiple rings each.

“Hello Eunwoo-sshi! Good to see you again!” 

“Hello Moonbin-sshi,” Dongmin said lowly, shaking his hand politely. Dongmin refused to call him anything other than Moonbin-sshi. Calling him Moonbin was unacceptable since they weren’t even close. Hyung was out of the picture. And sunbae implied he respected him. Which he didn’t.

“And you’re Xiyeon right?”

“That's me,” she nodded, shaking his hand. Her tone was quite normal sounding, but Dongmin could tell she was secretly thrilled to meet him. He couldn’t deny that Moonbin was popular. 

“It’s nice to meet you! I’m looking forward to working with you!” he said cheerfully. Xiyeon bowed quickly, uncharacteristically at a loss for words. Now that he was close to them, Dongmin inspected Moonbin’s makeup. He did it out of habit since the first comeback Moonbin had that Dongmin MC’ed for. His beauty mark on the center of his cheek, but Dongmin had noticed over time that it moved sometimes. It was drawn on. Matching his rings, he a faint golden highlight on his upper lip, outlining his distinct cupid’s bow. It matched his outfit, black pants and a dark blazer tight around his waistline, with gold feather decals on his shoulders and sleeves, and a neckline that ended just above his breast. Dongmin felt underdressed now in his neutral MC clothes. They were the same age, but Moonbin looked so much more mature than him. He realized that he’ll look even younger when he’d have to change into his blue shirt and shorts for Astro’s performance later today. 

“What’s the plan for today?” Moonbin asked. “Do you have your interview questions already? Can I do that things where I hide behind your backs, and then pop out when you call my name?”

“We only do that for really short people.”

“I can crouch really low. Eunwoo is very tall right?” 

“MCs to the stage please!” the director called out. 

“Moonbin! Come over here to get mic’ed up!” his manager yelled at him. 

Moonbin pounted “Give me a second!”

“ _ Now _ Bin!” he yelled. Moonbin’s expression fell, and he stepped back from the two of them, frowning.

“Mmm, I’ll talk to you guys later then. Xiyeon, Eunwoo!”

Xiyeon waved back to Moonbin as he was dragged away. Dongmin was already making his way to the stage, making Xiyeon jog a little to catch up with him. They were already ten minutes behind schedule with shooting waiting for Moonbin.  

“He kinda looks like a puppy when he laughs,” Xiyeon said.

“I think he looks more like a cat,” Dongmin said as they took their marked spaces in front of the camera.

“Oh? Are you a cat person?” Xiyeon teased, poking his side repeatedly. 

Huh? Eunwoo tried to make eye contact with Xiyeon who was resolutely not looking at him, smiling slightly as he looked into the camera. “What do you mean?” he cast a quick glance to the teleprompter that was being fired up. 

“Are you blushing?”

“Wha- no! The stage lights are hot. Wait, why are you asking me that?”

“Quiet please!” The director called. They quieted down as the cameras focused on them. From the corner of his eye, Dongmin could see Moonbin being ushered stage right of them, standing quietly to the side. Before he could spare him a second glance, he heard action being called. Ah, did he have the first line? He looked to his co-host.

“Well this is exciting isn’t it Eunwoo?” Luckily Xiyeon had the first line, and she hadn’t missed a beat. “We have a surprise new entry this week!” 

Dongmin picked up smoothly. “Aren’t surprise comebacks exciting?”  _ I hate surprises, _ he thought. Xiyeon nodded.

“Coming back with a wholly unexpected Winter comeback, this week’s surprise contender is as bright at the moon in the night sky, Moonbin-sshi!”  _ Gosh these lines were cheesy _ . Dongmin and Xiyeon bowed to Moonbin on camera as he walked into frame waving and smiling, pretending like he wasn't just standing a few feet to the right the whole time. 

“Can you tell us the concept for your winter comeback Moonbin?” Xiyeon said.

“Of course!” Moonbin winked, then made a kissy noise into the microphone. Dongmin restrained his desire to roll his eyes. Gosh, he was going off script again. Dongmin hated interviewing Moonbin. “My concept for this CB is Time. More specifically, it’s about the change that comes with the passing of time.” He made a nice arcing movement with his hands as he spoke. “We got to explore many different styles for this song, so I hope you enjoy the music video and my special stages in the following weeks.”

Usually now was when the interviewee would share a second or two of music or choreography,  but Moonbin just smiled and giggled a little. “I’ll keep the song a secret for now, but I do sme very interesting special stages,” Moonbin said cheerily, pointing to the camera.

Xiyeon’s eyes wandered to the teleprompter, confused. He was going off script again. “Ah, you sure you can’t give us a hint? Pretty please?”

“Well… I do have one with a motorcycle.” 

Dongmin felt his neck seize up. Moonbin made awkward eye contact with him as Dongmin almost choked. He looked to the teleprompter. It was his line. “Ah,” Dongmin swallowed thickly. “Last question, from debut to today, your last four singles had won first place on music shows their first week of contention,” he read, his brain almost on standby as he frantically caught up. Moonbin nodded kindly. “What an amazing feat, Moonbin-sshi. D-” 

“Eunwoo-ah, there’s no need to be so formal,” squeezed in Moonbin between his lines.  _ Eunwoo-ah?  _ Dongmin tripped over his next lines, making him hiccup oddly. His mouth snapped shut and he blushed. Moonbin burst out laughing.

“Cut!” the director yelled.

“Dongmin-oppa are you okay?” Xiyeon asked as the cameras blinked off. 

“Eunwoo, I’m sorry,” Moonbin said quickly, his laughter now ceased. Dongmin didn’t want to look at his face. He swept his hair back.

“Moonbin!” he said sharply. Xiyeon and Moonbin jumped. “Just read off the teleprompter! How hard is that?”

“Everyone!” the director yelled. “Please. We’re fifteen minutes behind schedule. Let’s just please finish this shoot in the next take.” Dongmin put his head down and went back to his marked spot on stage. Moonbin looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end just turned around to stand in his spot off screen again. Dongmin seethed quietly. 

This next week was going to be a nightmare.

**Author's Note:**

> And if anyone is interested in my girl pop playlist I made while writing this, here's a link, it's the return of [my Sassy Moonbin playlist!](https://open.spotify.com/user/aihuaart/playlist/3RfGXhisNWALyRYmiMYVla) Does anybody remember that Halloween Binu fic a few months ago? I made this playlist for that fic, but then it spiraled into this project. The title is from Moonbin singing Lip Gloss by Li'l Mama on ASTRO PLAY a few weeks ago. [Man that was adorable.](https://twitter.com/moonbinloop/status/935984531957604353)
> 
> My knowledge about how music show filming is obviously a little flawed. Everything I know from music show filming is from watching VIXX TV. Some parts are willingly inaccurate for plot.


End file.
